


Impossible Decisions

by MamaBear7319



Series: The Happier, Friendlier Timeline (2014) [11]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Irondad, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:29:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27005854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamaBear7319/pseuds/MamaBear7319
Summary: Between an Avenger Op that turns out to be more than what he had anticipated and a string of robberies, Peter is stretched thin during his senior year.  Ghosts from the past just complicate matters.
Series: The Happier, Friendlier Timeline (2014) [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1934734
Comments: 12
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter One

The building was a nondescript warehouse on a nondescript street in the industrial district. He was a little surprised Mason had been so easy to find. Of course he still had connections but all it took was asking a few very specific questions. He pushed the door open and saw a man hunched over a workbench looking at something through a magnifying glass. He walked into the office and leaned against the doorframe. “Adrian Toomes sends his regards.”

Phineas Mason almost dropped the Chitauri power source in his hands. He glanced up at the door before gently resting the power source on the table. “And how do you know Adrian Toomes?”

“I spent the last year in the cell next to him. He told me you might be able to help me. I have a job for you.” The man watched Mason process what he was saying. He might have exaggerated a little. Toomes didn’t exactly tell him to find his Tinkerer. 

“Oh yeah, what’s the job?” Mason sat down in his chair and looked at the man standing in his doorway. The man was dangerous but Mason also knew he had several devices to choose from within reach that would be more than capable of handling the situation if needed. 

“Four exo suits. A little smaller than the one you made for Toomes. Plenty of firepower.”

“It’ll cost you.” Mason knew he had the materials. It had been a while since he had been able to build something for someone else. Going into hiding was necessary but boring. He’s probably do it just to have something to do but might as well make some money off of it.

The man dropped a bag on Mason’s desk and pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket and laid it on top of the bag. “Consider this a down payment. Text me when they’re ready.”

XXXXXXXXXX

MJ glared at Peter as he slid into his chair for their first period class seconds after the bell rang. She knew he had a couple of bruised ribs. He didn’t know she knew, but she knew. She also figured he wouldn’t tell her anything about it. Dating Spider-Man sucked sometimes. Dating Peter used to be easy. Lately she was having trouble telling the two apart. She wished he would just let her in but he was keeping more and more things separate. Their teacher started writing on the board so she forced her attention back to the front. Their college classes were the first two periods. Two a semester last year and this year knocked out all of their core requirements. She’d start Princeton as almost a junior. Peter would start MIT in the same boat as long as he stayed awake in class. She took the opportunity to poke him while Mr. Warren still had his back to them, careful to avoid his ribs.

He opened his eyes and looked over at her and mouthed “thanks”. He was tired. He hadn’t blown his curfew but he also hadn’t finished his homework before patrolling which meant he stayed up late finishing it. So far he was in the clear but only because his dad and Pepper were too wrapped up with Morgan. He personally loved spending time her. It had become part of his routine. Come home for dinner, eat, feed Morgan, and then rock her to sleep. Pepper and his dad were eternally grateful because it gave them a break. Morgan was a TERRIBLE sleeper. When Peter took Morgan for an hour or so it meant Pepper could relax. Most of the time she slept and let Tony take the next feeding. That alone was almost worth skipping patrolling to watch. Almost. He was enjoying watching Iron Man navigate how to deal with a baby. His dad had turned into a fairly decent parent. But then again, Peter was 15 when Tony started trying to parent him which meant he had zero experience with babies.

Peter forced his attention back to the front. He was holding his own in class. He just needed to make sure it stayed that way. It had taken him a while to catch up from when he had been out of school after the thing with Osborn. He didn’t need to fall behind again. If his dad thought his grades were slipping he definitely wouldn’t be allowed to go on the op that was being planned. He glanced over at MJ who seemed a little irritated with him. He sighed and focused on the teacher. He could figure out MJ later. 

XXXXXXXXXX

MJ shoved Peter’s lunch tray towards him. “What could possibly be so distracting.”

Peter glanced up from his phone and took a chicken finger off his plate. “I’m trying to find out when we’re leaving.”

MJ rolled her eyes. “Is Tony going?”

Peter shook his head. “Morgan.” It was going to be weird being on a mission without Iron Man. It was going to be weirder being on a mission without his dad there. He couldn’t decide how he felt about that although it didn’t matter, there’s no way he was going to say anything to make his dad think he needed him there.

“So when are you leaving?” Ned leaned forward, trying to keep his tone hushed, although like the rest of their time at school, their lunch table was surrounded by empty tables, well away from the rest of the student body.

Peter took another bite of his chicken finger. “Not until Friday night.” He left off the fact that it would give him tonight to look into the series of ATM robberies. They had only been minor blips on the news. Honestly, people hit those things way more often than anyone realized. There was something different about the ones he had run across recently. He suspected they were connected but he couldn’t get in front of it. He managed to stop the one last night but it had devolved into a fight. He had a couple ideas about where they might hit next. He could test his theory out tonight but it would probably be Monday before he’d be able to patrol again. 

“Are you coming over to do your homework this afternoon?”

Peter looked at Ned. Homework had slid down on his to do list. Last time he was at a the compound Sam told him he thought he just had a bad case of senioritis to which Steve had followed up quickly with a reminder that even if Tony was too distracted by Morgan to enforce the rule about Peter’s grades, Natasha was not above hacking into his school to check and if anything was slipping he was off any operation. So, he probably needed to actually get his homework done before 2am. He nodded. “Yes. I should probably try to get a little a head too.” He frowned to himself. That would mean that he’d probably end up going home for dinner straight from Ned’s. He needed more hours in the day.

XXXXXXXXXX

Peter looked down from his spot on the roof of a building. He was actually feeling pretty proud of himself. Not only had he gotten his homework done, he had worked ahead in English and Math so he shouldn’t have any homework until next week. And, dinner at home had been great. May and Happy were both there and Morgan’s day had been pretty good which meant everyone was in a good mood. Now, he was exactly where he wanted to be - perched on a roof staking out a couple ATMs. “Karen, are you picking up anything yet?”

“Not yet Peter.”

He scanned the street himself looking for suspicious individuals. The ATMs were being hit after 11pm and it was getting close to that time. He spotted two men walking towards one of the machines in his line of sight.

“Peter, 911 just received a call about an ATM robbery in progress on 81st.”

Peter kept his eyes on the two men. “That’s right outside our target area. I won’t be able to get there in time. Let’s check out the two men walking towards the machine in this block.”

He flung a web to a neighboring building and swung lower and towards the building that housed the ATM. Perching on the side of the building in the shadows he waited for the men to make their way to him. He didn’t need Karen’s help to verify that they were indeed targeting the ATM. Both men were wearing ski masks. It was cold but not that cold. Plus, one of them pulled out a crow bar when they got closer.

Peter dropped down in front of them. “Hey guys, you might want to rethink your actions.”

“Why should I do that.”

Peter was about to come back with a patented witty retort but paused. There was something about the guy that was familiar. His spidey sense kicked in and he dodged out of the way of the crowbar that was being swung at him. Flinging webs he latched onto the crowbar and pulled it out of the hands of his opponent. He saw the glint of a knife in the hands of the second guy. “Why are you bringing a knife to a crowbar fight?” He leveled a sidekick at the hand holding the knife, which sent it flying. 

“Peter, the police have been alerted and are in route.”

Firing a web grenade in an attempt to wrap up the two men, he flipped out of the way when it missed and landed on the side of the building. He could hear the sirens and a few moments later so could the men. They both took off running down an alley. 

Peter could see the lights for the police cars so he opted to scamper up the side of the building. Most of the police officers actually like him but there were a few that considered him to be a vigilante. Last thing he wanted right now was to get wrapped up with the police. Instead, he stood in a shadowy part of the roof and watched the police for a moment. Satisfied that there wasn’t anything he needed to do, he flung a web from the opposite side of the roof and started making his way home.


	2. Chapter Two

Peter stood in the back of the room with Clint, the Iron Spider already deployed. They had gone over the op on the flight over, but they were in the process of getting updated intel from Wakanda. The mission was fairly simple. Wakanda had received intelligence that a neighboring warlord had gotten their hands on some alien tech, with plans of making trouble in the region. If Wakanda went in alone then it could be perceived that they were invading a neighboring country. Bringing in the Avengers meant that the operation had the blessing of the international community. Peter watched Steve and Natasha review final plans with King T’Challa. Peter had seen him in interviews but the man was impressive, almost intimidating, in person. 

Clint pulled away from the wall. “Come on kid. You and I are on containment.” 

Peter followed Clint. The information T’Challa was sharing didn’t necessarily affect Peter and to a certain extent Clint. Spider-Man was still mainly used on containment which meant they made sure none of the bad guys escaped and none of the innocent bystanders got hurt. It made Tony happy and to be honest, it suited Peter. Keeping people safe was what he enjoyed the most. 

The Quinjet dropped them outside of the encampment under the cover of darkness. Peter had reviewed the satellite images so he wasn’t surprised that the encampment was more like a small village with actual buildings. He scampered up the side of the building and perched in the shadows, knowing Clint had done the same on a similar building. 

“Karen, can you show me heat signatures?” After a moment clusters of green appeared on his HUD. 

“You sure you want your HUD that cluttered?”

“Dad?” Peter distinctly heard his dad’s voice but that was impossible because his dad was half way around the world. 

“Baby Monitor Protocol. I may not be there but I can still be there.”

Peter started to complain but figured it wouldn’t do any good. “So you’re what, trying to replace Karen?”

“No, just making sure you’re ok.”

Peter shook his head and focused on the Avenger transponders and the masses of green. “You know you’re the very definition of helicopter parent.”

“Yeah, well other parent don’t have to deal with a superhero son.” Tony paused for a moment. “Seriously, your HUD is too cluttered.” 

Peter growled as the green masses started disappearing. “Maybe I like it cluttered.” Peter watched the green masses reappear but in a much fainter hue. “Actually, I like that better. What did you do?”

“I adjusted the contrast. Looks like Nat, Steve, and Bucky are moving. Heads up.”

Peter focused on the transponders that showed the rest of the team moving in. They didn’t think they’d meet with too much resistance. They hadn’t even brought Rhodey, Sam, Vision, or Wanda. Wakanda had people waiting to assist if needed. 

He watched the the trio breach the main building. The goal was to recover or destroy the weapons. The intel had indicated that the cache was pretty much contained inside the buildings, they just weren’t sure which ones. It would be easier to neutralize the combatants before looking for the weapons.

Peter saw a group of men fleeing from one of the buildings. “Clint...”

“I see them. You go left, I’ll go right.”

Peter webbed to the adjacent building and flipped over to land in front of two of the fleeing men. Firing a web grenade he wrapped up one of the men. The other backtracked leaving Peter to chase after him. 

Having his dad act as his AI was actually proving to be helpful. He was throwing pertinent information onto his HUD. Potential travel paths for his opponent lit up as yellow lines which allowed Peter to fling webs to block egress routes and force him to go where Peter wanted. Left with only one option the man ran into one of the buildings showing a large number of heat signatures. 

“Do not enter that building by yourself.”

Peter skidded to a halt as he approached the building. He could see Natasha and Bucky headed his way. Steve had moved to assist Clint. “A decent number of heat signatures inside. Also picking up alien tech.” Now that he was closer he could pick up the faint signatures that the alien weapons emitted. 

Natasha nodded. “I think they have tech stored in most of these buildings.” She glanced over at Bucky who had stepped next to her, effectively blocking Peter. As if on cue, he kicked the door down.

In a whirlwind of activity Peter did what he always did in these situations. He started to web up the bad guy. What he hadn’t been expecting was that the bad guy would be using a girl he guessed was about 10 years old as a shield. The size difference allowed Peter to aim above the girl and throw him off balance. Natasha finished the job. 

Bad guy subdued, Peter glanced around the one room building. If was full of women and children. Some looked hurt. They all looked scared.

Steve and Clint had joined them so Bucky gently pushed Peter out of the room. “Kid, come on. Neither one of us needs to be in here.”

Peter felt his fists clinched at his sides as he looked around the room at faces that either looked vacant or scared. There was no in between. He let himself be moved backwards. “Bucky...”

“I know kid, let’s head back to the Quinjet.” Bucky glanced down at Peter as he herded him away from the building. He noticed the tightly clasped fists at Peter’s side. When they got out of the encampment he watched Peter’s mask melt away. “If you need an outlet find it before we get back to the jet. I’d let you pummel one of the bad guys but you wouldn’t feel good about it when you were done.” Bucky watched Peter process what he was saying and saw some of the tension leave his hands. 

“I don’t understand.” Peter wanted to reconcile what he had seen. He knew bad people existed but that was more than bad.

“No, you don’t want to understand. There’s a difference. And it’s fine.” Bucky moved in front of Peter and stopped. “This is why we do the things we do. Because horrible people exist. They always have and they always will.” He moved back next to Peter and started walking again. 

“There were so many of them. And some of them were so young.” Peter felt like he was just barely stringing words together.

The Quinjet came into view and FRIDAY lowered the ramp to let them on board. Bucky followed Peter up the ramp. “Nat runs side missions more often than she thinks anyone knows. Taking down human traffickers is something that she has strong feelings about.” He stopped and stowed his gun before turning back to Peter. “During the war, we came across something similar. You’re doing better than I did.”

Peter looked over at Bucky from his position against the bulkhead. “What do you mean?”

“Well, after the fighting was over and once the adrenaline stopped, I proceeded to throw up everything I had eaten in the last 24 hours. Also couldn’t eat for a couple days.” Bucky shoved the rest of the memories back down. The same thing had happened when they came across one of the camps. “I just want you to understand that none of us are ok with stuff like this. But I also don’t want you to compromise who you are because of it.” He realized Peter was looking at him in confusion. “You’re the superhero that doesn’t kill. You’re a natural protector. Seeing that made you angry. And it should. It’s what you do with the anger that matters. If you get angry enough where you want to hurt someone then it’s compromising who you are.”

Peter nodded. He could hear the rest of the team making their way back. He and Bucky had noticed the Wakandan fighter landing as they were leaving so he assumed Wakanda would take over since the mission had taken a left turn somewhere. He mulled over what Bucky had said as he slid down the bulkhead to sit on the floor against it. He was vaguely aware that Clint had taken off and that Natasha had joined him on the floor. After a few moments he tilted his head and rested it on her shoulder


	3. Chapter Three

Peter followed Bucky and Steve down the ramp of the Quinjet. It had been a quick trip to Wakanda and back so he didn’t even have a duffel bag with him. Hands shoved into his pockets and head down, he didn’t notice the lone person waiting for them under the overhang.

At least the Avengers didn’t give him crap about his dad being there to pick him up. They had more or less debriefed on the flight back so it wasn’t like he needed to sit though a long debrief before heading back to the city. Natasha hugged him. Bucky hugged him. His dad threw an arm around his shoulder as they headed to the underground parking. 

Tony already had Peter’s keys so he slid behind the steering wheel. He could tell Peter was on automatic pilot which meant he was stuck in his head. “How are you doing kid?”

Peter paused for a moment before looking over at his dad. “I know trafficking exists. You see news stories about it all the time. But seeing it in person was...”

“Hard?”

Peter shrugged and looked out the window. “Hard. Eye opening. Horrifying.” He glanced back over at his dad. “They were so young.”

Tony nodded. “It made you angry.” Baby Monitor Protocol meant he saw what Peter saw but it also meant he saw all of his biometrics. Peter’s heart rate usually increased when he was excited, scared, or angry. The spider meant his systems functioned at almost 100%. He couldn’t get his heart rate to increase unless he had been swinging non-stop for hours. Peter’s heart rate had jumped up as he took in the scene in the room. 

Peter nodded. “Did you know Nat runs side missions taking down human traffickers?” 

Tony hadn’t missed the slight shift in subject. “No, but it doesn’t surprise me.” He had talked to Steve and knew between Bucky and Nat, Peter had been in good hands. They had made sure he was ok before they landed. 

Peter let another long pause pass. “I’m ok. I mean it sucked. It more than sucked. I’m not sure there’s a word for how much it sucked. But because we went in, those girls are safe. Bucky said that King T’Challa will make sure they’re taken care of and that’s a good thing.” Peter sighed. “I would rather deal with missions like that than not. I’m not saying I made a difference, all I did was make sure two guys didn’t escape, but I was part of a mission that ensured that those girls don’t have to deal with being scared and being hurt. I’d gladly trade being angry or upset for that.”

“Pete, I wish you didn’t have to. I wish you could just be a kid. Hell, sometimes I wish you’d just be Spider-Man instead of taking on the world.” 

Peter shook his head. “I have the ability to do something so I do. I’d rather feel anger instead of guilt. I can manage all three - being a teenager, being Spider-Man, and being Natasha’s Junior Avenger.”

Tony chuckled, “Maybe, just don’t stay up until 2am doing your homework again.”

XXXXXXXXXX

“How was the mission?” MJ knew he hadn’t been hurt, but Peter seemed a little off. She didn’t think he’d share any details of the mission. He never did. But it didn’t mean she didn’t try.

Peter shrugged. “It was fine. Bad guys captured.”

Ned closed his locker and turned to look at Peter. “Good because your ATM robbers stepped up their game over the weekend.”

Peter frowned. “What do you mean?”

“According to my source...”. Ned frowned at MJ as she rolled her eyes. “Anyway, the police have figured out that it’s one crew hitting all of them so they were strategically patrolling those areas. One of the officers got shot Saturday night.” Seeing the look on Peter’s face he hurriedly added to his statement. “He’s fine. I think he’s already out of the hospital.” He looked over at MJ as the bell rang for their first period class. “I’ll catch up with you after 2nd period.” 

MJ grabbed Peter’s hand as they made their way to their first period class. “It’s not your fault.”

“Sure it is. If I had been here I probably could have stopped it.” Peter let go of her hand as he slid into his desk. Pulling out his book and notebook he tried to focus on class and not the fact that MJ was staring at him and not the sense of overwhelming guilt he was feeling.

XXXXXXXXXX

Peter perched on the roof of a building. Karen had mapped out all of the ATMs in the general vicinity and had marked the ones that had been hit. They had it narrowed down to a specific area but this was his second night of staking out ATMs and they hadn’t seen anything. Nor had there been additional robberies. Maybe the fact that someone had gotten hurt had scared them off. It was possible, Peter just didn’t think it was very likely. “Karen, are you picking up anything?”

“Nothing on the police scanner.”

Peter sighed. “Ok, might as well swing around Queens and see if anyone needs help.” He flung a web to the closest building and started working his way through Queens. Two muggings and an attempted car jacking later, Peter was a couple blocks over from Delmar’s debating about grabbing a sandwich when he caught a glimpse of something in the sky. Not sure of what it was he scampered up the side of the nearest building for a closer look. He scanned the sky for anything out of the ordinary. His Spidey sense went off at the same time Karen triggered a protocol.

“Alien technology detected.”

He had ducked out of instinct. Looking up, he saw a pair of wings soar over him. “Uh, Karen? What is that?” He watched as his target swooped up and back towards the roof. As it made its approach again, Peter got a good look at it. Memories of flames flicking at his skin flooded back. Even worse memories of not being able to breath followed. 

“Kid, what’s wrong? Karen...Shit.”

Peter heard the familiar sound of a repulsor firing through his audio. It shook him out of his memories long enough to fire webs at the wings and yank them forward. This exo suit was a little smaller then the original one. It also seemed to have a little more thrust than the other one had because Peter felt himself being pulled across the roof. 

Using the webs he pulled himself upward flipping backwards and landing on an elevated part of the roof, he fired another web at the wings, this time securing them to the roof. Peter was about to fire another series of webs to make sure it couldn’t escape when three additional vultures rose above the roof. One of them fired an energy blast at the webs holding the first one in place, allowing it to rise up.

Peter looked at the four vultures hovering above him. He set his taser webs at their highest settings as Karen marked the likely targets to disable their propulsion system. If he got lucky he could land webs on all them before they did too much damage. He could hear the alien power sources ramping. He had heard that sound so often in his nightmares. Before he could fire the webs, a repulsor blast hit the vulture on the right. Fighting Iron Man was apparently not on their to do list for the night because the remaining three vultures carried off their disabled friend.

Iron Man landed hard on the roof next to Peter. “I’ve already got FRIDAY checking. Are you ok?”

Peter watched the vultures disappear into the darkness of the night. He heard his dad ask the question again. Was he ok? He didn’t know what he was. “I’m not hurt.” He searched the sky for signs of metal wings. Not seeing any he looked over at Iron Man. “FRIDAY picking up anything?”

Tony retracted his face mask and helmet. “Nothing in the area. They’re using Chitauri power sources. She lost them about 3 miles northwest of here.”

“The warehouse district?”

Tony shook his head. “No. We’re going home and figuring out what’s going on.” He thought about calling Happy to pick them up but figured they could get home faster on their own. And he could make sure Peter actually went home instead of chasing after ghosts.

Peter turned back and looked at the night sky once more before nodding. “I’d say I’d race you but it’s not a fair race.”

Tony chuckled. “I won’t go super sonic and I’ll give you a head start.”

XXXXXXXXXX

Peter landed on the balcony moments before Iron Man did. He knew his dad let him win but it had been fun trying to race him. They had opted for the floor that had the command center still in place from when the Avengers had been in residence on the floor below theirs. Neither one of them wanted to wake Morgan up or worry Pepper.

FRIDAY had pulled up video of the prison where Adrian Toomes was currently residing. Peter stared at the screen. He hadn’t seen him since that night. He had even avoided watching the news coverage of his trial. He looked a little older, a little thinner.

“Ok, so not Toomes.”

Peter nodded. “The exo suits were smaller.”

“They never found the guy making his equipment. It could just be he’s designing for others.” Tony pulled up a list of known associates. A large number of them were in prison with Toomes. They had never found Mason. Tony had never looked himself. At the time he hadn’t wanted to stir it back up for Peter. “FRIDAY, see if you can track Mason. And scan for Chitauri energy readings.” He looked over at Peter. “Want to sleep down here tonight?” He knew Peter would try to hide his nightmares. It was one thing to try to keep from waking Morgan up, it was something totally different to fall back into bad habits. 

“You’re not going to let me say no, are you?”

Tony shrugged. “It’s been a while since we’ve fallen asleep on the couch watching a movie.”

“Fine. I get to pick.”

Tony knew what they were watching. The original Star Wars. It was Peter’s go to comfort movie. He actually enjoyed Empire Strikes back and even Rogue One better, but Star Wars was almost soothing for him. He was perfectly fine watching Star Wars for the 100th time.


	4. Chapter Four

“So not Toomes?” Ned watched Peter get his books out of his locker.

“Nope. Just four guys with exo suits. Dad has started calling them the ‘Vulturions’. He thinks he’s being funny.” Peter closed his locker and walked with Ned to their 4th period class. “Oh, Bobby texted me this morning and wanted to know if we wanted to meet him Saturday night. He’s apparently on a mandatory ‘visit the parents’ weekend and wants an out.

“How about that pizza place we tried a couple weeks ago.” Ned had met Bobby a couple times. As the guy in the chair, Ned felt like his duties extended to Peter’s other not quite your run of the mill friends. He still marveled at the fact that he played Fortnite on a regular basis with Falcon. 

Peter nodded. “I’ll text him after school.” Bobby’s home life was challenging at best. He understood why Professor X wanted Bobby to maintain contact with his parents but he also knew what Bobby went through at home. He knew Bobby couldn’t wait to get to MIT. Peter was somewhat excited that he’d have a roommate that he didn’t have to hide from but it didn’t change the fact that he wouldn’t be in New York. He hadn’t quite made peace with that yet.

He was fairly relieved that the balance of the week was vulture free. He had gone out patrolling every night, despite the fact that his dad kept coming up with things to try to distract him. Then, when the distractions didn’t keep him inside, Iron Man had just happened to be out multiple nights. Wednesday night the excuse was they he needed to test a thruster upgrade. Thursday night the excuse was something about the flight stabilizers. By Friday night his dad had just flat out admitted that he didn’t want him patrolling by himself. Peter would never admit it to anyone else but he was glad he wasn’t out alone. They had triple checked that Toomes was still safely locked away but there was something about seeing that exo suit and the whine that the suit made that kept appearing in his nightmares.

He he had also been pleasantly surprised that his dad was content to just be in the same borough and wasn’t trying to stay lock step. It made patrolling so much easier. But, by Saturday, he was more than ready to just spend a couple hours with Bobby and Ned. It was a couple hours of mindless talking, eating, and playing vintage video games that lined one wall of the pizza place. After parting ways with Peter and Ned, Peter activated the Iron Spider in the safety of the shadows of an alley way. It was one of the upgrades his dad had worked on this week. He could trigger it from the nanotech housing on the backside of his watch. Climbing the wall, he plotted his course that would take him over the streets of Queens. He had a couple hours that he could patrol and work his way back to Manhattan. He had even successfully convinced his dad that he did not need a babysitter. Flinging a web, he jumped off the roof.

XXXXXXXXXX

After an annoyingly quiet night, Peter stood on the roof of one of the taller buildings on the edge of Queens and Brooklyn. It was so quiet it was almost weird. No mugging, no car jackings, nobody that needed help. With a sigh he started to fling a web to make his way across the channel when he spotted movement on the roof of another building. “Karen, zoom in and scan.”

The contrast on his HUD highlighted the four figures on the roof. “Karen, there’s no logical reason four guys would be on the roof at 11:30 on a Saturday night, right?” He scanned down the building. The building was tall, not as tall as the skyscrapers on the other side of the channel but it was tall enough that whatever happened on the roof was well hidden from the street. 

“Peter, I’m detecting alien weapon signatures. And, that building is a bank.”

Maybe his ATM thieves and his Vulturions were one in the same and the bank was the natural escalation. “Ok, call dad.” A moment later the familiar face appeared.

“What’s up kid?”

“Do not come in guns blazing...but I think I found the Vultures. And I think they’re trying to rob a bank.” He could hear the Iron Man suit forming. “Seriously, covert...you know what that means, right?”

“No. Stay put, I’m coming to you.”

Peter saw the Iron Man transponder light up. “Just meet me on the bank roof.” Peter fired a web that would take him across the street. Flipping up, he landed behind the four men. He could see the exo suits clearly now. “You know, I think they’re closed today.” Peter somewhat expected the four men to spin around in surprise. That’s usually what happened when he dropped behind criminals and started talking. Instead, only one of them turned around. The other three remained focused on cutting through the roof.

Karen helpfully highlighted all of the weaponry built into the exo suit. It definitely carried more firepower than Toomes’ original suit. Peter mentally ran through his order of targeting. “Who are you? Toomes is still in jail.”

The lead Vulture walked forward, away from his three accomplices, weapons charging. “I asked you that same question once...Peter.”

Panic seeped through Peter as the man uttered his name, freezing him momentarily. His instinct for self preservation kicked in as he saw the man raise both arms to fire weapons. Firing taser webs he targeted the Chitauri power cores housed in the exo suit. If he could expose them, he might be able to yank them out. Rolling out of the way of the onslaught from his opponent he fired web grenades at the other three, trying to wrap them up until his backup got there. He heard a repulsor blast charge as he flipped out of the way and targeted the lead vulture again. Firing, he webbed one of the wings and pulled, disarticulating part of it. 

The man twisted around, pulling the webbing with one hand and raising his other hand to fire. “Aren’t you curious as who how I know who you are?”

Peter flipped out of the way of the weapon’s blast. He fired at the man’s legs to wrap him up. Glancing over, he saw Iron Man engaging with two of the Vultures in the air. The forth one was unconscious on the roof. “More concerned with stopping you right now.” He fired another web grenade, setting the taser charge on a delay. The grenade landed where he had wanted it to...on the back of the exo suit where the power cores converged. He looked at his HUD realizing that another one of the vultures was down, but Iron Man and the third one were swooping between buildings. 

“Now where’s the fun in that Peter.” He fired another blast at Peter. “I knew you were dangerous I just didn’t know at the time exactly how dangerous. And the fact that Iron Man is your backup again is interesting.”

The blast hit Peter in the shoulder, forcing him off balance. Landing in a crouch, the pieces started clicking into place, the voice, ‘who are you’. “You’re the guy from Homecoming. Why aren’t you in jail?”

The man sneered and fired another blast at Peter. “Took you long enough. I thought you had to be smart to go to that school.”

Peter felt the suit absorb another blast. The wide beam he was using was getting harder to dodge. All of the hits so far were glancing blows. He felt like the suit could take a direct hit he just didn’t want to test it. He triggered the charge on the web grenades. It wasn’t a large explosion, more like a sizzle. 

“Peter, the charge has successfully locked up the mechanism controlling his wings but not the Chitauri cores.”

“I’ll take it. No wings means less maneuverability.” He checked down on his dad’s position. They had moved almost a full block away. Hopefully they weren’t doing too much damage. Luckily they were in the business district and very few places still had occupants in them at this time of night.

He fired another series of webs, not aimed at his opponent but rather spread in a pattern to contain the fight. If his opponent couldn’t fly and he couldn’t run, Peter thought he should be able to finish taking the weapons offline. “How did you know my name?”

The man chuckled and charged his weapons again. “Toomes likes to talk about his daughter. Once I found out what school she went to before they left New York I just kept asking questions. The way he talked about his daughter, that school, and how he had been caught, it wasn’t hard to figure out Spider-Man went to that school. You were the likely candidate.” He fired at Peter, catching him in the leg. 

The hit caused Peter to lose balance. Landing on his back, he sat up and noticed that he could see the purple glow from the core where the man had charged his weapon. It was completely exposed. “Karen, are the cores connected? There were two cores, one on either side. If they were connected, he might be able to take out both of them at one time.

“Affirmative Peter”

Firing webs at the core he knew they had hit their mark. Yanking he pulled it out of its housing. He knew he had been successful. His opponent on the other hand, was not aware of what had happened. When Peter fired a follow up volley of webs, the man started to evade, stepping closer to the edge of the roof. Peter could tell what he was trying to do. The man intended to use the open air space over the street to get in position to fire on Peter again. He just didn’t know that Peter had disabled both his wings and the power core. “Stop!”

Peter watched the man dive off the side, fully expecting the wings to extend and allow him to rise above Peter and fire downward on him. Peter knew they wouldn’t. He rushed to the side and fired a web, tagging the man’s foot. He had already run the math. The building wasn’t high enough. He fired multiple webs trying to slow the man’s descent. He knew as he was firing them it wouldn’t be enough. He heard the impact but it was sooner than he thought and with nowhere near enough force. He looked down and saw a shelf of ice formed about halfway down the building. Scampering over the side he made his way down to the shelf. “Karen, vitals?”

“He’s alive.”

Tony hovered next to the ice shelf. “Street level. Now.”

Peter nodded and crawled down the side of the building. Even with the ice shelf appearing he was still surprised to see Bobby. Iron Man landed next to them. Tony retracted the helmet. “Can you bring him down to the ground without dropping him?” Bobby nodded and manipulated the ice until it had melted, gently depositing the man on the sidewalk. Tony looked at the two boys. “Find somewhere to change and head to the tower. I’ll take care of this and meet you there.”

XXXXXXXXXX

Peter paced the common area. They had gone to the Avenger floor when they finally made it back to the tower. It was 2am and Peter did not want to be the one responsible for waking Morgan or Pepper up. Karen was keeping him updated on what was happening. He knew his dad was talking his way through the idea that Iron Man had stumbled across the bank robbers. He was more than happy to let his dad take the credit for the capture. Iron Man did most of the work anyway. Peter was way more concerned about the status of the guy that had fallen. 

FRIDAY slid open the balcony door to allow Tony access. The armor melted back into the nano-housing on his chest. “You two ok?”

Peter and Bobby nodded. “What happened?”

“Police are cleaning up.” Tony studied Peter, anxiety of the guy that had fallen was written all over his face. “All four are at the hospital. They should recover although the guy that fell may not have much of a memory. There was a decent amount of head trauma.” He looked at Bobby. “What were you doing there?”

Bobby shoved his hands in his pockets. “Got into a fight with my dad when I got home and he kicked me out. I was headed here when I saw you fighting one of those guys. Thought I’d come help.”

Tony nodded before looking back at Peter. “You ok?”

“I didn’t mean for him to fall. He didn’t know I had taken out his power source and one of the wings. I tried to catch him.” Peter looked at his dad in almost a panic. Maybe he did mean for him to fall. After all, he did know his name. Was he sub consciously protecting his identity?

“Pete, I know you didn’t mean for him to fall. He did that by himself.” Karen had already told FRIDAY that the man knew who Peter was. Tony also knew that Peter would never in a million years intentionally hurt someone just to hide who he was. 

“Peter, I saw how hard you were trying to stop him. I also saw him jump off the roof himself. Based on what I saw the other guys doing with Iron Man it wasn’t hard to figure out he was planning to use his wings. This isn’t on you, it’s on him.” Bobby crossed his arms and looked at Peter. “He’s a bad guy, don’t take responsibility for him.”

Tony smiled to himself. He suddenly felt much better about Peter being at MIT in the fall with Bobby. “Kid, Bobby’s right. This isn’t on you, despite where your head is.” He looked at the two boys. “I’ll run upstairs and get clothes for both you. Why don’t you stay down here tonight. That way you won’t have Morgan waking you up.”

XXXXXXXXXX

Peter collapsed in a corner of the sofa. Bobby had taken up residence in the other corner. He looked over at him. “Thanks for the save tonight. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stop him.”

Bobby shrugged. “Like I said, don’t beat yourself up over this. I was happy to help. It was kinda cool to be a part of an Iron Man and Spider-Man team up.”

Peter smiled. “It’s pretty cool fighting along side legends but it also can make for a crappy week.” Peter tilted his head back. “I started the week feeling pretty good about things. I felt like I could manage all of it. I’m ending the week with some guy almost dying.” He pulled his head back. “He knew who I was.”

Bobby looked at the expression on Peter’s face. He hadn’t known Peter that long but that had gotten into some pretty deep conversations about what it meant to be different and what you do with what you’re given. He knew how serious he took wanting to keep people safe - both the people he cared about as well as complete strangers and even people that were trying to kill him. “And you’re wondering if you forced him off the roof so he wouldn’t tell everyone who you are?”

Peter’s eyes darted over to Bobby’s. “Something like that.”

Bobby shrugged. “From what I saw you didn’t. And I know you well enough at this point that I think I’m leaning towards that’s not who you are.”

Peter chuckled. “That question keeps coming up. There are times I don’t know if I know the answer. Am I Spider-Man? Am I a Junior Avenger? Am I Peter Parker? Am I Peter Stark? Right now I have no idea.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “Pretty soon I’ll just be Peter the college student. Can’t be Spider-Man in Boston.”

“Is that really such a bad thing?”

Peter shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not sure I could decide on my own if I had to just pick one so part of me is ok with the decision being made for me.” Not being Spider-Man was going to suck. But he still had a couple more months before graduation. Until then he would just juggle all of it.

**Author's Note:**

> The stories that come before are all chapters that were already written. This is not. I had a pretty big gap between Morgan being born and the next already written chapter so this story fills in not only time but some blanks (references in future stories). Feedback and comments are welcome (let’s be honest, comments are CRAVED...especially since I’m actively writing!)


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